Autumn foraging at Blackdown Yurts

You may have read in the news that Autumn seems to be coming earlier this year as blackberries are ripe and ready for the picking. I've already put lots in the freezer and have made some fantastic recipes with blackberries which I will share below. It looks like it is going to be a mast year with larger than usual crops of both fruits and nuts - our apple trees are sagging under the weight of the still-ripening fruit and I've noticed an abundance of acorns and hazelnuts. 

When you stay at the yurts you are most welcome to forage for blackberries (some of our guests have already enjoyed some this year) and also in the hedgerows for other edible berries - for example rose hips, sloes and elderberries can all be used alongside blackberries and crab apples if you have them to create a delicious hedgerow jelly (jam without the pips). Make sure you know what it is you're picking and that it is definitely edible! 

Recipes to try with blackberries:

Blackberry brownies
I have what I consider to be the world's best brownie recipe - saved as a page pulled out from The Telegraph magazine back in 2021 and much used since then. It gives you the basic recipe and then suggests different fillings. I used blackberries and white chocolate in my recent incarnation however I think macadamia nuts (or indeed hazelnuts, see below) would be a winning addition to that combo. The Telegraph credits the recipe as being from ScandiKitchen: The Essence of Hygge which sounds like just the right sort of cookery book for venturing into the Autumn months with. 

​Roasted beetroot with blackberries and toasted hazelnuts
For this one I have to credit The Farm Table at Darts Farm, the award-winning farm shop in Topsham. We were fortunate enough to have dinner there last week and one of my friend's had this dish as a side. So simple, roasted beets with blackberries and toasted hazelnuts over the top. I'm not sure if it had a dressing but I'd add a slosh of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Roasted red onions would go well too I think and perhaps a sharp feta or a goat's cheese. I'd not eaten at The Farm Table before but would certainly recommend their fabulously flavoured pizzas fired in the pizza oven. Darts Farm is definitely worth a visit for a browse and to buy some excellent local produce. It's a real treat.

​Blackberry fool with hazelnut biscuits
I wanted to create a dessert using blackberries for Sunday lunch with friends last weekend. Felix and I picked a kilo of blackberries really quite quickly from the hedgerow nearest our house. I had a quick google of blackberry fool recipes and settled on this one as I liked the sound of the hazelnut biscuits - both being fruits of Autumn blackberries and hazelnuts are a match made in heaven as seen in the last recipe too. Stupidly I forgot to take any photos but they did look beautiful, adorned with sprigs of mint intact with flowers. 

Hairy Biker's recipe for blackberry fool with hazelnut biscuits on BBC Good Food.

Hedgerow jelly
Another BBC Good Food recipe, this time for hedgerow jelly. We are fortunate to have a crab apple tree outside our holiday cottages at Halsbeer Farm and a lot of berries in the hedgerows on the farm including blackberries (top left), sloes (bottom right), rose hips, haws (from hawthorn, bottom left) and elderberries (top right). Get out and get foraging and give this one a go. 

Pam Corbin's recipe for hedgerow jelly on BBC Good Food.